Nothing Without Me

TWO

Chapter 2

James was never in Spain. She found him back in his office the next day through his colleagues. The boiling rage that hadn’t let her sleep through the night was what made her walk through the glass door and into the foyer of his workplace.

She didn’t bother speaking to the receptionist. She didn’t stop speaking to anybody until she was at the 5th floor office of the Managing director. Pain laced with such heartbreak lacerated her heart when she saw her. Sitting at her usual desk. Charlotte Hayes. Typing away on her keyboard.

“Mrs. Whitmore.” If Elena had ever mistakenly thought that this woman might have a little shame, she was proved wrong now, when she shamelessly santuarted towards her with a smile like a cat who got the cream and knew it.

“James is busy….” She smiled. “He can’t see you now….”

Elena didn’t care. She didn’t want to say even a single word to this home-wreaker. So, she walked further towards the office. “Mrs. Whitmore!” Charlotte was now right behind her, her long black heels clicking after her. Her red-painted lips turned into another cruel smile.

“I really hoped, after that performance last night, you would have the self-respect to leave James alone. But I see I was wrong.” Elena couldn’t take it, not with the kind of rage that had been building inside of her. The betrayal of a 4-year marriage, the heartbreak of her little girl. How could she do this?

She slapped her. She slapped the woman so hard that the force made her stumble two steps back. Her cheeks were tainted red. Someone from the cubicle outside peeked at them and she saw Charlotte’s face go even redder at the embarrassment.

“You can’t do this!” She suddenly shouted. The fake smiles and cruel innuendoes all disappeared within seconds as young Charlotte Haye’s real face came alive. Angry, bitter, and desperate.

“I am here to see James Whitmore,” Elena repeated, standing tall, despite a good number of people now looking at them from all sides.

“He loves me! He spends all his nights with me! I give him the s****l satisfaction that he couldn’t get from you! You understand that?” The young woman hissed the words near Elena’s year, her expression cruel. Certainly, these comments were said to try and hurt Elena, but all she felt was sad…..sadness for this young woman who was no more than 22-23 years old.

And doing what with her life? Sleeping with a 35-year-old married man, her boss at that? James Whitmore had never loved Elena or their daughter Lila, she was sure of that now, not in these last four years, and she felt sad knowing that he most probably didn’t love this foolish young woman either.

“He tells me every night that he loves me.” The young woman continued to speak, and every word only showed how naïve she was being. “He says he will leave you and marry me, you know?”

She wasn’t sure how many people around them had heard her, but she was no longer interested in continuing this juvenile catfight. She was here to confront James, and that’s what she was gonna do.

But she need not have done anything, anymore. James Whitmore, in all his glory, stood at his office door, glaring at them both. Elena glared back.

“Charlotte, take your break now.” He ordered. Which did not settle well with his young mistress. “But James, she slapped me – you should tell her to leave!” Like the child that she was, Charlotte cried about the unfairness.

James glared at her, “I said, leave me alone with my wife!” Shocked and with teary eyes, the young woman took her leave amidst the crowd that had gathered outside to watch the whole scene.

While Elena was invited into his office. She looked at the lavish design, the glass windows, the mahogany desk, the awards he had won as a good employee on the walls. she had never seen his office before and she will never again see it.

Because this was the end. No matter what kind of excuses he came up with, Elena had already decided that she was leaving him.

“Why are you here?”

“You are sleeping with your assistant.” It wasn’t a question, it was a statement.

A long silence stretched between the two of them.

“It didn’t answer my question. Why are you here?” The shamelessness, the utter lack of respect as he stood there, wearing it like a badge of pride that he had broken his wedding vows and had a affair with a woman ten years his junior, was unbelievable.

What kind of man was he?

“I am here because I want to know WHY DID YOU DO IT?” In the fit of rage that burned in her veins, Elena grabbed his collar, trying to shake him awake, trying to make him feel even a single percent of the kind of pain and heartbreak she was feeling.

“WHY?” She looked into his eyes. But there was no shame there, not regret. Not even defensiveness. He was cold, aloof and so-so away from her even at that moment that Elena knew she had lost him much, much before this.

“It shouldn’t matter to you whom I should fuck.” He pried her fingers away from his collar. His eyes were as cold as his words. “Sit down, we can talk this through!”

Talk what through? Elena laughed, a bitter, shaking laughter that ended in tears. “You are my wife, and you could remain that.” James began, handing her a glass of water. “We have a child together, and she needs a good home to grow up happy and healthy. And I had needs that were not being fulfilled in our marriage. I wanted things….” Elena closed her eyes, never as ashamed as she was at that moment. Why? She didn’t know.

“I wanted things you couldn’t give me.”

“In BED?” She hissed.

“Yes,” James replied, just as easily, as if it meant nothing. “It has nothing to do with our marriage.”

“Do not act like a jealous shrew Elena!” He sat down in his chair behind his desk, while she continued to stand. “I am man enough to fulfill your physical needs whenever you need. But what I do outside our home should be none of your business.”

Tears, tears of pain, betrayal, a broken marriage- everything felt small in front of this. She was starting to realize what he was offering. For him to keep f*****g whoever he wants and she remains his wife, sitting at home taking care of their daughter.

Her hands shook before she made the decision. In a split second, the glass of water was poured over him, drenching him with the cool liquid. “I want a divorce.” And in that second, the coldness in his disappeared too, because suddenly he was angry.

“Elena!”

“I am sorry, but I have a little more self-respect that your w***e of a secretary.” She hissed. “Contact your lawyer before I do.” Those were supposed to be her parting words, for one day, where she had found out that her husband had been cheating on her, to be asked to tolerate his affairs was a little too much for her.

“Just a second!” He had grabbed her hand and forced her to turn around. “That was not a request. Elena. Just because I was being nice doesn’t mean I was playing games.” He twisted her wrist and twisted it some more until Elena was sure it would break.

“I do not like to look like a fool! And I do not want this divorce! But if you continue to do this and act like this attention-seeking, jealous fool, I will file for sole custody of Lila!”

Silence met that claim as Elena stood there, shocked beyond words. “Do you want to risk losing your daughter, my dear sweet darling?” He asked, cruelty written all over his face as he spoke those words. “Because if you try leaving me, I will take your daughter away from you. You will never get to see her again.” He let her wrist go after that, and Elena stumbled a few steps back.

“Now, my lovely wife, you don’t mind – get out! The new CEO is arriving today. I have much to do, and if you see Charlotte outside, please send her in. she needs to be punished too, until she understands exactly what position she holds in my life.”

He was laughing.

Alejandro Castillo arrived in England amidst a torrential downpour and thunderstorm that no one had seen coming, his patience already growing thin as his car was stuck in an hour-long traffic jam in the middle of London. He had left a thousand pending things back in Spain to come here and take care of this little thorn in his side. Vanguard Luxe International, he had bought the company on a whim last year, appointed the Managing director as the head to run things as smoothly as possible and left.

But the old man had died of heart failure last week, and now it was time for another handover of the power. He could have easily done it from Spain, but he wanted to see things over himself before making any decisions.

He sent his men to the top floor before him, as he spoke to a few people downstairs, before starting to make his own way upstairs. He pressed on the elevator button, and in a few seconds it opened, revealing a woman in a loose maxi dress that had seen better days, her hair in such disarray that it seemed like she hadn’t brushed it in many days.

She walked out of the elevator, her head bent low, and yet in a flash, he saw such pain written across her face, her eyes rimmed red with such an ache that Alejandro wondered if she was even human as she walked and then disappeared amidst the busy lobby. Or was she just a figment of his imagination?

“Who was that?” He asked.

“Who?” his assistant asked, confused.